We aim to understand temporal organization of animal behavior and its underlying neuroscientific mechanisms

1. Circadian organization of social behavior

: Behaviors toward conspecifics, preys or predators should be coordinated along time of aday. Male animal should exhibit mating behavior when female partner is awake and receptive. Nocturnal prey should forage when diurnal predator is not foraging. Circadian pattern of social behavior seems evident, but underlying neural mechanisms how behaviors toward various social cues are modulated by circadian clock remain unknown.

Recent progress in social neuroscience identified key nodes in brain circuitry processing socially relevant information. We will trace the connection between “the social brain” and the mammalian clock machinery in the brain and interrogate causal link between them. We will also investigate the contribution of clock-controlled neuromodulatory system on social behaviors. Furthermore, local molecular clock will be specifically tackled using mouse genetics and genome editing technique to address how electric activity conveyed through circuit and cell-intrinsic molecular machinery are harmonized to drive temporally organized social behaviors.

2. Neural substrate of valence for social learning

: Animals can modulate their behavioral response to neutral cues after significant social experience. Oxytocin may convey saliency of unconditioned stimuli (US) for both positive and negative social learning. However, the identity of neural substrate specifically supporting positive and negative social learning remains unknown. Through collaboration with Gloria Choi lab at MIT, we aim to elucidate dictinct neural populations that encode either positive and negative social experience and that serve as neural substrate for appetitive or aversive social learning.